Fostering innovative and sustainable mass-market construction using digital fabrication with concrete
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Date
2022-11
Publication Type
Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
The construction industry produces buildings and infrastructure. These construction works are typically immobile and customised, and must meet many criteria to provide value to modern society: structural safety, durability, serviceability, aesthetics and integration, environmental sustainability and construction efficiency. Accordingly, traditional construction methods, along with the resulting construction works, have been adapted to comply with these multifaceted requirements for more than a century. However, the construction industry has a considerable environmental impact, with reinforced concrete as its primary driver due to its extensive use, and will be facing an ever-increasing responsibility to tackle climate neutrality in the upcoming years. Digital fabrication with concrete is a young yet already broad discipline that brings about the potential for the necessary reduction of the environmental impact and further industrialisation of the construction industry while being compatible with the multifaceted requirements for construction works. Still, it has not penetrated the construction mass market, which is paramount for making a significant difference towards improving the environmental impact of the construction industry. The present study tackles this issue by (i) assessing traditional construction and digital fabrication on a value-driven basis, identifying and summarising their inherent strengths and challenges, and (ii) proposing a value-driven ideation process to identify relevant mass-market levers of digital fabrication in the construction industry. The presented methodology indicates two exemplary applications of how traditional construction and digital fabrication processes can be combined to tackle the persistent environmental sustainability challenges.
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Publication status
published
Editor
Book title
Journal / series
Volume
161
Pages / Article No.
106948
Publisher
Elsevier
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
Digital fabrication (dfab); Evaluation of conventional construction; Mass-market penetration; Concrete structures; Environmental sustainability
Organisational unit
09469 - Kaufmann, Walter / Kaufmann, Walter
02284 - NFS Digitale Fabrikation / NCCR Digital Fabrication
Notes
Funding
141853 - Digital Fabrication - Advanced Building Processes in Architecture (SNF)